The present disclosure relates to a sheet width aligning device and a sheet feeding device.
Image processing apparatuses, typified by digital multi-function peripherals, are provided with a sheet feeding device that feeds sheets of paper. The sheet feeding device includes a manual feed tray that accommodates various types of media suitable to be manually fed. The sheets are aligned with each other in the width direction and the aligned sheets are placed properly in the manual feed tray. In short, the properly aligned sheets along the width are loaded.
There are some well-known techniques of aligning sheets of paper along the width. A typical sheet width aligning device includes a pair of width aligning cursors each having cylindrical driven rotors that rotate horizontally and springs that serve as elastic members. To align the sheets along the width, the springs bias the driven rotors so as to separate the driven rotors away from an inner side surface of the width aligning cursors. According to the typical sheet width aligning device, the driven rotors biased in the direction in which the driven rotors separate away from the inner side surface produce bouncing motion that absorbs the displacement of the sheets in the width direction, thereby reliably aligning the sheets along the width.